Preparation of animal fiber for felting



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN T. \VARING, OF YONKERS, NEXV YORK.

PREPARATION OF ANIMAL FIBER FOR FELTING.

SPEGIFECATION forming part of Letter! Patent No, 339,034, dated March 30, 1886.

Application filed December 11, 1885. Serial No. 185,409. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Jo na T. WARING, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Yonkers, in the county of \Vestchester and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Preparation of Animal 11 ibers for Felting, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to bring fur, wool, or other 'feltable animal fiber to a condition in whiclrit will felt more easily; and to this end it consists in subjecting such fibers to the action of sulphurous oxide gas, or, as it is more commonly termed, sulphurous acid, before subjecting them to the felting process, or before the completion of the said process.

The process of treatment with sulphurons acid may be performed upon the fibers by exposing them in a chamber of suitable capacity to sulphurous acid generated in said chamber or introduced thereinto in any suitable manner; but the simplest method,

and that which 1 have successfully used, is to of the fibers-mud [also believe that fibers inplace the fibers in a chamber in which sulphur is burned.

The t'ur, wool, or hair may be subjected to the action of the sulphurous acid either while on the skin or after having been cut from the skin; or in the employment of the invention in the manufacture of felt hats the hat-bodies, after having been formed, but before being subjected to the felting operations, may be exposed to the action of the sulphurous acid, and this treatment of the fibers after they have been formed into hat-bodies is a special feature of my invention.

In the treatment of the fur, wool, or hair while on the skin the skins are hung up .in the chamber, in which they are treated with the sulphurous acid,and in treating the fiber, when in the fornrof hat-bodies, the bodies, after having been formed, are treated while hung up in the said chamber; but in treating the fiber after having been only cut from the skin, it may be exposed to the action of the gas in the chamber in baskets or on perforated shelves, or in any suitable perforated or reticulated receptacles in which it may be thoroughly permeated by the gas. In all cases,

however, I prefer to moisten the fiber with water before subjecting it to treatment with the gas, and to treat it while so moistened.

After treatment by my process the manufacture of the fiber into felted goods, or the felting of the formed goods which have been subjected to such treatment, may be proceeded with in the usual way.

I My process produces on fur a similar effect to that known in the trade as carroting, which is employed to int-reuse or assist in the development of the feltin property.

I am aware that wool and other animal fibers, and some vegetable substances, have commonly been treated by exposure to the action of sulphurous fumes and gas, for the purpose of bleaching them, long previous to myinvention; but I am unaware that animal fibers have ever been treated with such fumes or gas pre m-ratory to felting them, and I believe that I am the first to make that quality of sulphnrous gases upon which this invention is basedviz., the quality of assisting the development of the felting property tended for felling have never been subjected to treatment with such gases while in such condition as to enable that quality to be utilized in the slightest degree.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to sccu re by Letters Patent, is

1. The within-deseribed process for assist ing the development of or increasing the felting property of animal fibers, consisting in subjecting such fibers preparatory to felting to the action of sulphurous oxide gas or sulphurous acid, substantially as herein described.

2. The withiii-described process for assisting the development of the felting property of animal fiber in but bodies or increasing such property by subjecting the hat-bodies after they have been formed, but before the felting is performed orcompletwhtothe action of sulphurous oxide gas or sulphurous acid, Substantially as herein described.

JOHX T. \YARINU.

Witnesses:

llnxnv 'l. llnowx, FREDK. HA vs us. 

